Cocktail Illustrations

From the talk with Gemma on Tuesday I thought it would be worth looking at illustrations in cocktails. I’ve noticed this comes in many forms.

Infographics are a visual representation of information, in this case this could be the ingredients and their ratios that go into a cocktail. The Fancy Drinks Poster details the ingredients almost as a pie chart, so you can see exactly how much is used. On top of that there is some symbolism of ice cubes, garnish and glass used. I think this is a really easy and creative way of how to make cocktails. Potentially the only thing missing is how to make them eg stir/shake strain/double strain? As this has use of glassware too, like a few other recipes and graphics I’ve seen I think I should use them too if I don’t end up using the glassware in the photograph.

Similarly the Architecture of Cocktails by Amy Zavatto and Melissa Wood is a small book of 70 cocktails. Each cocktail’s recipe is depicted as patterns in the glass such as this example of Eggnog I find this harder to understand as there are so many patterns, so similar and some contrasting. I don’t like how I have to keep looking down about what liquid to the key whereas the Fancy Drinks the drink information was next to each cocktail.

There are various other illustrations advertisements or promotions such as the Tanqueray Drawing Rooms by Sophie Barton. Unfortunately I can’t find anymore work by Barton but I think it is a very beautiful drawing and ties in very nicely as a brand with Tanqueray and the project as a whole.

Laura Boardman creates very quirky pieces she did a sort of inf0graphic for Enhance Nutrition, nutritionist and personal trainer duo. They wanted a fun and easy on the eye way to visualise some key points of their training program. Part of this was the nutritional value of different drinks. They are an interesting and sort of cute way to remind you. The ice isn’t fully drawn out yet you know it is ice. Boardman also did some work for London Wine Week and Cocktail Week and I worked a little with her to design aspects for the festivals. For London Wine Week she actually painted with wine I think that is a very interesting thing to do. If I create a menu and need illustrations I could paint with the cocktails? (I’m mainly thinking about the purples from the aviation). All the same I really like this creativity.

Jenni Sparks creates quirky maps and bright visuals. For London Cocktail Week she worked with Absolut Vodka to create a map with all the Absolut Classic cocktails on. The cocktails themselves are very basic, simple outline of a glass, a small bit of garnish showing (if applicable) and the colour of the drink.

In the London Cocktail Week guidebook and promotions, there were a number of little illustrations that were used to fill space or divide space. Such as these and these. As you can see these are bit more then just outlines of glasses, there are details from the garnishes and even shading. I think I like these the most – I hope that’s not because they remind me of my year out!

Another way illustrations are used are to visualise whole recipes of cocktails. These also have a bit more detail with shading, garnishes and colour. I really like the use of colour in them and added touches quirky features like the girls in bikinis to add context.